A Great Wind Is Blowing
by Terakali
Summary: Change is natural, but it's not often that people so radically abnormal are given such lofty positions. With virtually unlimited freedom, what's a team of powerful and violent warriors supposed to do but take it all over? Contains elements of The Games We Play, but it's not about that. Rated M just to be safe.
1. A Sudden Windfall

**_We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world._**

 ** _We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible._**

 ** _To the gravity that glues us to an Earth that would otherwise send up spinning off into space._**

 ** _Or to the atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally depend._**

 ** _Few of us spend much time wondering why the universe is the way it is._**

 ** _Where the cosmos came from, or whether it was always there._**

 ** _In time, we may one day look back on it._**

 ** _Or whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know._**

 ** _What is the smallest piece of matter?_**

 ** _Why can we remember the past, but not the future?  
_**

 ** _And why there is a universe._**

* * *

As Moonlight pulls itself to a close, Windfall slips off the side of the branch he was sitting on top of. He had timed it to end just before his job began.

His boots impact the earth heavily, but his powerful legs brace him easily. He presses a single button on the side of his blue headphones, the interior computer shifting setlists to his 'work' mix.

As the drums and bass slowly pick up in his ears, Wind brushes his smooth black hair from his eyes, the matching orbs gazing down the hill to a massive unmarked truck.

 _Show time,_ he thinks, placing his dustcaster-shield onto his left wrist and withdrawing his bo staff from his back, resting the traditionally two handed weapon by his side.

With a single movement, he leaps into the air and across the more than thirty meter distance to the top of the semi, causing his blue windbreaker to blow past his plain white t-shirt.

A touch of his semblance negates most of the impact with the roof, a dulled thud being the only evidence of his arrival.

Not that they would likely react in time either way.

He walks along the roof, careful to hush his footsteps, to reach the edge just before the windshield.

With a smirk, he holds his staff in front of him and spins...

BOOOOOOOM!

A cascade of multicolored dust spews forth, the many effects overlapping to cause what he named a 'Chaos Storm'. The explosion blows apart the glass of the windows, slicing the occupants inside, before sucking all of it back out of their newly made injuries as the air pressure vacuums everything together.

Windfall, by using his ability to control the air pressure against his body in an almost artistic manner, keeps himself firmly rooted in place on the roof of the newly toppling vehicle.

As it skids across the ground on it's side, Windfall heaves himself over the edge of the trailer and slides to a stop along the asphalt.

After a moment, the first people he'd seen all day drag themselves out of the back of the truck.

Directly into Windfall's line of fire.

They all look up at the sound of his shield, the energy collecting at the center in a device of his own design, even if he lacked the mechanical expertise to actually build it.

For the sake of dramatics, he says a few parting words. "Say hello to grandpa for me."

The neon blue circuitry tracing his otherwise black shield flood to the large sphere in the center, the light reflecting over and over as the energy builds.

While it takes a few thousand circulations to actually shoot, we're working with the speed of light.

Before anyone, even Windfall, could register the attack blasting forth, it had already blown apart the collection of criminals.

He walks up to the truck, bypassing the mutilated corpses without pause. His objective wasn't them, after all. He wanted what was inside the truck.

Windfall steps inside, his eyes locking onto the glass case held to the truck by various elastic cords. They'd failed due to the crash, but what he was looking for wasn't nearly fragile enough for him to worry.

He kneels down, picking up the set of bracers with deft hands.

A single sound, that of metal against metal, alerts him to people just outside the truck. Without even looking at who they are, he stands up and lifts his hands in the universal sign of surrender.

"Hey there, Oz. Did you visit regarding my application?" he asks as cheekily as his emotionally stunted self can manage.

Even without an audible cue, Windfall can tell Ozpin was smiling as he sipped his coffee.

"I believe we've seen plenty. Welcome aboard, Windfall Branwen."

* * *

(Later, during a required interview.)

"I was not born in the best of homes. The Branwen family was unstable thanks to a certain... Pair of individuals, so my mother was forced to settle disputes between them while also working to keep us three alive. Oh yeah, my twin sister Monody was with us too. Monody was a great sister, and her singing ability was the reason I first delved into music."

"My love of music is actually what led me to becoming a Huntsman. When I was... 12? I don't remember my age that well, but it was at least five years ago. Anyway, when I was a lot younger my sister Monody was doing a choir concert for our school when Grimm attacked. We all survived, obviously. I mean, the Branwens don't train powerful hunters for nothing, but we wouldn't always be with them, and we both knew that."

"My sister didn't want to become a Hunter so she could focus on her singing career, and someone needed to keep her safe, so that's when I began my training... Or, I suppose I should call it what it was."

"My pain."

"After years of this, I even got accepted into your school without any transcripts from a trainer school. Thanks for that, by the way. But, with a school comes new people, and leaving behind the old..."

"So, I said goodbye to everyone. I even said goodbye to Schwarz's memorial, something I'd never spoken to in my life out of spite. But, then again, he died doing what I'm doing now. I can't let myself be a hypocrite forever."


	2. A Lovely Evening

_**I'm fine with changing status quo, b**_ _ **ut not in letting go.**_

 _ **Now the world is being torn apart!**_

 _ **A terrible catastrophe p**_ _ **layed by a symphony;**_

 _ **What a terrifying work of art!**_

 _ **I can't sit idly.**_

 _ **No, I can't move at all!**_

 _ **I curse the name, t**_ _ **he one behind it all**!_

 ** _Discord, I'm howling at the moon a_** ** _nd sleeping in the middle o_** ** _f a summer afternoon!_**

 ** _Discord, whatever did we do t_** ** _o make you take our world away?_**

 ** _Discord, are we your prey alone, o_** ** _r are we just a stepping stone f_** ** _or taking back the throne?_**

 ** _Discord, we won't take it any more, s_** ** _o take your tyranny away!_**

* * *

Nadeshiko smiles broadly, but the girl before her seemed far less happy.

 _I suppose she doesn't enjoy pain as much as me..._ she thought with a frown.

"You sick fuck!" she cried, unable to do more than squirm thanks to straps holding down her limbs.

Nade gives her a closed-eyes grin, the calming effect completely lost on the torture subject beneath the Japanese woman. Her weapon, a scimitar named Shiki, was currently digging into her arm lengthwise, tearing a progressively longer gash along it.

"Come on. All you have to do is tell me where Adam went," she says in as light-hearted and happy a tone she can manage with her own internal lack of feeling.

To forward her point a bit more, she pushes the blade slight deeper into her flesh, the steel edge scraping along bone.

"AH!" the girl, Corona if Nade recalled, cried out. She gradually slows her breathing to just 'panicking' level while Nade awaits an answer.

And wait she does, her brilliant blue eyes looking down with an intensity only rivaled by threat of agony should she fail.

"I... I will only say i-if I can go free..." she whimpers out with as much confidence as she can muster.

It wasn't enough.

"AH!" she cries out again, the blade pushing even further into her defenseless form as her bone starts to crack.

"I don't think you understand how this works," Nade says, her smile turning into a dark frown. "I decide everything, and if you want any chance to live, you'll tell me."

The light in Corona's eyes finally fades, replaced by the complacence her torturer had been seeking since the beginning.

"Of-of course... He- Adam... He is hiding out just South-East of Mountain Glenn," she manages to state through gritted teeth as the blade plays along the edge of her open wound.

Nade's smile returns, and this one a bit more genuine that the previous, though with a few unsettling undertones still mixed in.

"See?" she asks rhetorically, pulling her weapon delicately out of her victims flesh. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

While hiding a grimace at her still bleeding arm, Corona nods slowly.

"Fabulous. Now... Because you've made me happy, I suppose you can leave with your limbs," she says, as if only now considering her life worth anything. Despite the cryptic message, Corona relaxes slightly.

"But, I'm gonna have a little fun first."

Corona watches as horror as Nade's weapon reshapes itself into a number of harsh weapons, each gradually more jagged and impractically dimensioned as the last.

The effect is lessened slightly by Nade texting someone on her scroll with her attention seemingly gone from her.

Corona doesn't speak out of fear, that Nade would remember what she was doing.

Unfortunately, after half a minute or so of her typing on her scroll and sending something off, Nade's attention returns to the girl bound to the hardened concrete floor.

"Let us begin," she says, lifting her sword in it's final form: a double ended barbed and spiked... dildo.

* * *

"I was going to not say anything, but then they threatened me with expulsion. I wouldn't care much if not for my team. I mean, what are the odds that I get teamed with at least two dangerous and violent people in a school for heroes?"

She sighs.

"Alright, so to start off I am a criminal. I didn't have to be, and I was actually raised in quite the luxurious home, but there was a sense of adventure missing. Nobody was suffering, nobody died, and nobody went without."

"I couldn't live like that."

"I left the Yamato family at a fairly young age, eight I believe, and stole/fought my way to the top. My semblance helped, allowing me to open things like safes and locked doors with ease and minimal time or to disable guns with a touch."

"Strangely, though, these traits seemed to endear me to this Oum forsaken school, so here I am... A student."

"I would say things like 'What a pleasure it's been' or 'I'm so lucky to be here', but that would be a lie. I guess there is one plus-side, though I doubt you'd call it that."

"No matter where I go, there will always be criminals to torture, and there's absolutely nothing anybody can do about it."


	3. The Smallest Spark

**There's a fire that burns inside.**

 **It's an instinct that never lies.**

 **The target's tattooed between our eyes.**

 **Stand and fight.**

 **Under the lights on the high stage- a part of your life it can take away, just like the blood running through your veins**

 **Everyone's watching through your eyes.**

 **There's only two options win or die, win or die.**

 **Win or die, die, die, die, die.**

 **It went from a spark to an open flame;**

 **now destiny's calling out your name.**

 **So reply, so reply.**

 **And ignite.**

 ** _There's a power that's underneath._**

 ** _And you can't see it 'til you believe, o_** ** _n the edge of infinity._**

* * *

A single spark was all it took to begin, the fire starting to billow in the wind. Just as it began-

[Message Redacted]

* * *

"My past, huh? That's quite the interesting question, especially considering how much of it you should already know, but alright."

"I was born to the Jade and Luna families, both of which had spent a long time not exactly being enemies, but being rivals in martial arts. Fortunately, they were willing to work together once pressured to do so by the recent Grimm incursions."

"They taught me their way of fighting and began training me at as young as four, but I never really had an opponent until I was nine. His name was Perid, and he seemed like a more skilled person than myself, but..."

"Well, I won. It was a slaughter actually, as my legs spun around his neck and slammed him into the ground face first over and over until he was forced to surrender by the referee. That was actually when I unlocked my semblance..."

"I healed him, completely by accident, and to all the world it just seemed like I started screaming in agony."

"I was happy that he was fine, obviously. I didn't want to crush people like that, but... I was someone else when I fought. My body moved in an almost feral craze and I was just an onlooker. But, was the pain worth fixing that? I could always just stop fighting."

"Unfortunately, I knew the answer was yes, and that I actually couldn't stop fighting, but I knew I could actually do better, so I chose to become a huntsman. It was almost unprecedented for one of our group to join the hunter academies, but they were all rather accepting of it and helped me work my way up the ranks."

"After a while, mostly spent getting the qualifications more so than actually training, I was sent through a year at Signal to get procedural and academic teaching that my families couldn't offer. Once that was finished, I came here."


	4. The Demon Of Steelwatch

**_Another mission- t_** ** _he powers have called me away._**

 ** _Another time- t_** ** _o carry the colors again._**

 ** _My motivation, a_** ** _n oath I've sworn to defend-_**

 ** _To win the honor o_** ** _f coming back home again._**

 ** _No explanation w_** ** _ill matter after we begin._**

 ** _Unlock the dark destroyer that's buried in me._**

 ** _My true vocation, a_** ** _nd, now my unfortunate friend,_**

 ** _You will discover a_** ** _war you're unable to win._**

 ** _I'll have you know that I've become indestructible-_**

 ** _Determination that is incorruptible._**

 ** _From the other side, a terror to behold._**

 ** _Annihilation will be unavoidable._**

 ** _Every broken enemy will know that their opponent had to be invincible._**

 ** _Take a last look around while you're alive._**

 ** _I'm an indestructible master of war._**

* * *

Denada slammed the end of her unmarked pole into the ground, the thick metal permanently marking the concrete beneath it with a inch thick circular hole.

Standing at a distance, the members of Steelwatch had a perfect view of the well over six foot tall woman in tanned leather armor and with equally tanned skin. Unlike the hunters, for which she had planned to become, she didn't exactly have a color scheme.

The only thing you could really describe her as was an Amazonian warrior.

It wasn't far off, physically anyway. With more than two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and bone mixed with an equally monstrous aura, it would be hard for her to be anything else.

Denada cracks her neck, the sound reverberating across the area loud enough to alert the group.

 _Well, it's not like I was planning to stealth it up anyway,_ she thinks, her pale green eyes scanning the nearly four dozen gang members for weaponry.

Most, if not all, had knives and daggers, but more than a few had guns, although mostly things like pistols.

And then there was a guy with an M32 rotary grenade launcher.

 _I can't exactly be non-lethal if they're going to blow up their own men..._ she acknowledges with a sigh. Fighting wasn't about injury or death, it was about your force of will. If there was something you couldn't communicate with words, you should instead do it with fists.

Or a six-foot long metal pole, in her case.

"I challenge Steelwatch as a member of the Dios family," she states as loudly as possible without breaking her relatively calm tone. Getting your opponent angry on purpose was unfaithful towards the fight, after all.

"Get out of here, ya freak," one of them calls down from the safety of their stronghold, an abandoned apartment building.

 _Oh, so it's about race is it?_ she rhetorically asks herself while smiling. Her maw bubbles up slightly as her blood starts pumping, the bacteria ridden venom that her faunus nature bestowed within her animalistic mouth forming an almost rabidly horrifying picture as it runs down her chin and to the floor below.

They seem to understand, even from their distance, what they'd done.

"KILL HER!" several of them yell, drawing their firearms and pouring led into the street.

Just as soon as they open fire, Denada dashes forward and out of their current aim. They attempt to track her, but it's next to impossible to draw a bead on someone who changes direction as rapidly and fluidly as she does.

Launching herself into the air, Denada kicks off a streetlamp and directly into a random goon's skull, sending him flying. Several more join him as her weapon whips around in her hands.

She's forced to duck around more bullets, easily making her way into the building through a newly broken window.

Her aura glows around her, forming a protective barrier while enhancing her physical characteristics. The power boost is used a moment later when she lunges directly at a wall, shattering the beam behind it and spraying the room's occupants with shrapnel.

Their fighting ability tarnished, she knocks them out with a brief flurry of pole strikes.

 _Come on... Where's a real enemy?_

An answer comes a moment later, an explosion hitting her directly in the back.

The force blows her forward, splattering painfully against the wall of the room. She ignores the pain, however, and stands up seemingly unharmed.

"One."

The word is the last in the room, the bulky bloke with a grenade launcher soon missing from it and entering a different one.

Making careful note of where the new holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling are, she makes her way throughout the building, easily taking down each small group as they foolishly seek her out.

Finally, she makes it to the last room, one filled with a collection of money, weapons, and unmarked white packages likely containing drugs of some kind.

Not that it really mattered when her target was the people within.

"Stop! We'll give you anything!" one of the remaining two members, likely the head of the group but without any distinguishing characteristics, cries out in a panic.

"Anything?" she ponders aloud.

The both of them nod vigorously, trying their damnedest to avoid the broken bones and bruised flesh of the weak willed men coating the floors around the complex.

"Alright," she says in a voice just calm enough to relieve them.

There's a pause, the both of them looking uncertainly at her but with far less panicked expressions.

"I want you gone."

* * *

"Why do you need my story?"

"For research purposes... Right. Well, I came from a religious family that worshiped Oum, but I realized soon enough that it wasn't the life for me. Why would I worship or respect a god as detached as him from this side of his creation?"

"So, I bailed on them and formed my own faith, believing in the god of force, Bia. Bia doesn't get worshiped, but instead gets honored by your dreams. You control the world, bend it to your will, and you are channeling her own divine will."

"As it happened, I wanted to fight. My family was disrespected and refused to let me stand up, so I was gone. Their faith, their weak god, all of it went away and I became a new person chasing my own desires."

"As it turned out, fighting was fun, so for a long time that was all I wanted and strove for, but that wasn't a life in itself. I needed something a little more... And I found that in hunting Grimm. Grimm were nearly limitless, and unlike humans there was nobody out there who would complain about you killing your way through the Encyclopedia of Grimm."

"But... That couldn't last forever either, which is why I'm here. It was either this or go to prison after the Steelwatch incident, so obviously I chose the job that would let me continue doing exactly as I wanted to."


	5. The Grand Bell tolls

A bell resounds throughout the school, the echo of metal slipping around the halls and alerting the students that Initiation would begin.

Windfall, Nadeshiko, Neo, and Denada rise from their seats at the table, the group making their way to the cliff at a somewhat stiff walking pace. There was no conversation, but unspoken words of encouragement passed between them with subtle gestures.

They already knew who their team was going to be thanks to Ozpin, so Initiation was more of a chance to show off.

And show off they would.

The cliffside just ahead, they stand on adjacent tiles at the far left with smiles coating their faces.

Well, besides Nadeshiko. She was looking around at the competition, occasionally nodding at another freshman.

 _I guess I'm going to have a fun year here,_ Windfall comments to himself while turning up to the sky. His headphones were still on, shooting Celtic music into his ears at a fairly tame volume, at least for him. After all, he had to be able to hear the Grimm approach.

Ozpin gives a speech of some kind, giving them their objective. Of course, the destination was the temple like usual, but the choice of an artifact as the goal rather than some combat feat was certainly unusual.

Windfall slides his shield into his arm in preparation for the event to come.

Being first in line, his pad shoots him off into the sky.

A smile on his face, he uses his semblance to clear the air directly in front of him, the process vastly extending his air-time.

Nearly halfway to his objective, Windfall kicks off a few trees into a dive roll followed through expertly into a sprint.

 _Nailed it._

* * *

Nade rolls her eyes at Windfall showing off.

 _If that's how you want to play it, I'm game_ , she mentally prods while holding her scimitar above her head with both hands.

The pad throws her forward and into the sky, giving her just enough lift for what she had in mind.

Her own semblance triggers, the metal of her blade unfolding into paper thin stretch above her. While heavy, for a hang glider, it was easily made up for thanks to her head start.

Using her weapon in that manner, she doesn't even need to land in the forest, but rather makes her way to the canyon from the air.

The only thing that catches her eye is a Nevermore roosting up above the temple in the distance.

* * *

Neo glances around, his teal eyes examining each person with a tranquil air about it. He wasn't even visibly aware of what was happening when he was launched, but his unseen smile said otherwise.

Flying was an unusual experience for him, the air brushing by his face at a speed he'd yet to encounter being a particularly interesting feature.

Unfortunately, he lacked any way to propel himself, nor did he have anything to change his direction.

Compared to the previous two, he might have seemed incredibly unprepared for the event. Hell, he didn't seem particularly strong and he wasn't carrying a weapon.

That thought was silenced when he finally dropped into the treeline.

The first tree he hit, an oak if he had to guess, fractured completely at the point where his leg crashed into it. The same happened the the following six, all being torn apart with seemingly no resistance.

As the tops of them slam into the ground behind him, Neo puts his hands behind his head and starts the long trek to the objective.

* * *

Denada smiles, watching the exceptional performances of her teammates. While boasting wasn't a positive action, proving your abilities certainly was.

She cracks her neck to each side, her head just returning to it's normal position when the mechanism beneath her fires.

Compared to the rest, she barely goes anywhere.

The tile, something prepared to propel adults a good halfway across the forest, sends her a third of the distance.

 _Could I have broken it when I set my pole down on it?_ she wonders while mulling it over mid-fall.

Not that it mattered. The crater from when she simply landed upon the earth more than made up for the unimpressiveness of her launch.

Using her more than forty pound metal pole as a walking stick, she lumbers off towards the objective.

* * *

Seeing as she arrived first, Nadeshiko was forced to wait for quite some time. Windfall arrived second, around a minute later than her, but they were both incredibly early.

Since they didn't need to pick up an artifact, the only real job was to partner up. Since they made eye contact first, that was the end of the slightest question.

"What should we do?" Nade asks, obviously bored. Windfall, with his music beating steady rhythms into his head, was more or less fine with just doing nothing.

But, bonding was important for a team, even one made of particularly violent individuals.

"There were Grimm in the forest. We could always go hunting," he said, his eyes scanning the woods at the border of the temple for any threat. There wasn't any, but they couldn't always go looking for trouble.

"Eh, that just doesn't sound like my kind of thing," she lets out with a sigh. "Grimm are far less fun to fight than other humans..." She turns towards him with a glint in her eye.

To his credit, Windfall doesn't react with fear, but the suspicion he carries couldn't be masked. "And you're gonna want to fight me, then?" he asks blandly, his focus shifting to her even if his body didn't get the memo.

"That would be correct," she says through a offputting smile.

Windfall sighs, his head tilting just far enough to look at her.

"I'm gonna be straight with you. I'd prefer not to fight, at least not now."

Her eyes narrow, but the thoughts behind those pale blue eyes are not given away. "And why would that be," she prods carefully.

Windfall leans back against a tree, his eyes closing as he thinks back.

"I came here to help people. Injuring my team mate- my partner, no less- wouldn't exactly serve that purpose," he replies with his available senses all ready for a surprise.

Good thing too.

*KLANG*

Windfall opens his eyes, his gaze slowly transitioning to where Nade's blade was being held back by his shield.

"That was rude, don't you think?" he asks, mostly rhetorically. He knew what her intention was, and there was basically no reason to deny her a chance to show off. "Ready?"

In answer, she gives him as genuine a smile as she could. "Of course."

* * *

The forest was lacking in Grimm. That might not sound like a complaint, but it actually was.

So far, Neo had only encountered a pair of Beowulfs, and they died easier than the trees he'd cleaved through earlier. It was almost unfair, really.

Where were all the dangerous things Ozpin mentioned? The Grimm that they were supposed to face off against with their lives on the line? Despite actively looking for Grimm to mercy, he'd been left out.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Neo turns his head sharply to the side, his ears checking for the source of the sound. It was hard to judge with the more high pitched screams, but he deduced that it was probably an effeminate man.

 _Thank you for the food,_ he silently states with a smile.

Rather than following the voice, seeing as anyone with any ideas on how to use aura could survive pretty ridiculous falls without issue, Neo tracks the sound to it's point of origin.

Not that it was all that difficult. Once he got close, fighting noises brought him the remaining fifty meters or so to his objective: a Deathstalker.

"Fabulous," he whispers to himself while entering a ready stance.

The redhead who was duking it out with the scorpion Grimm seems to notice him, even going so far as to try and direct the battle in a different direction.

How kind of her...

Neo raises one of his feet slightly, the impact of it crashing into the ground more than enough to send him flying. It wasn't a launch pad, but it would have to do.

The Deathstalker doesn't so much as look away from the fight, leaving it directly in his intended path.

Neo falls hard, his outstretched leg slamming directly against the Grimm's mask. While the hard bone-like structure fragments, several even digging into the flesh below, the Deathstalker seems relatively unhurt.

Unfazed, however, would not be the correct term. It screams at him, although the noise is very distorted and incomprehensible thanks to it's failed vocal system.

Fortunately, for it anyway, it's perfectly capable of communicating anger and slight pain with it's gigantic tail.

The aforementioned limb shoots down towards Neo, but he simply ducks to the side slightly.

While the Deathstalker has the sense to stop it's attack before the singer impales it's own body, Neo wasn't in a very forgiving mood, so he stomps down on the ridge of the last circular plate.

The stinger is forced down, piercing the back of it's head. While immune to it's own venom, seeing as it has no biological system to break nor do scorpions have vulnerabilities to their own neurotoxin, being impaled was a different story.

It roars out in pain, prompting Neo to stomp on it's stinger again.

And again.

And again.

Finally, after he'd actually grown born of crushing it's own weapon into itself while it tried to throw him off it's back, it let out a hiss and died.

 _Man, that thing was actually annoying._

"Who are you," the still unknown woman asks while putting her shield and spear back in their natural place. She didn't seem to be a threat, and her choice of opponent and weaponry weren't bad either.

It's such a shame, then, that he could already tell she was just being professional.

"I'm Neo Jade, and I'm afraid that I already have a team," he relinquished after a moment of silence.

She nods, turning towards where the scream went.

"I do too. I hope he landed alright," she says, a kind of wispy haze appearing on her face.

 _And we have a crushing girl. Alright..._

"I'm gonna be straight with you, because it's blisteringly obvious that you like whoever that was. Say something. If you're already together, say something anyway."

Hey, it was hypocritical, in a sense, but that was in the past.

The girl runs off, waving for him to follow behind.

"Thanks. I'm Pyrrha Nikos, by the way," she hollers back with a smile plastered on her face.

* * *

Denada smiles, looking a distance over at a certain Ursa riding Valkyrie.

To say that looked fun would probably be the biggest understatement of her life, but the other one was already dead by her ninja-like partner's hand.

"Wait for me," Denada calls out while breaking out into a run. She easily catches up with the clumsy bear Grimm, but that was partially aided by the thing falling over.

"Ah... It's broken..." Nora says with a depressed frown.

Just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by an excitement that seemed to allow her to teleport. She was already at the podium, picking up a white rook, before Denada's eyes could actually figure out where she went.

That wasn't the first time Nora had done that either, though the skill seemed to disappear in combat. Strange, that.

Then again, she didn't really need the ability to be wherever she wanted to fight. That was the greatest thing about Nora, at least so far. If she wanted something, you were a very unfortunate individual should you be in the way.

Her will seemed to replenish itself almost instantly, even if it was possible to bring it down, and her strength was equally exceptional. Her hammer was the perfect representation of this, it being a weapon designed to hit something once and only once.

It was perfection.

Yes, it wasn't a weapon to test wills like her own metal pole, but it was a weapon that exemplified all the ideals of Bia.

 _I should try and convert her... Denada_ suggests to herself silently. It wouldn't be a bad idea, and Nora would be a great ally.

Plus, it would also being the much quieter and cautious Ren. Denada may know that she was incredibly strong, but she was aware of her own vulnerabilities, so it would be worthwhile to have a strategist as well.

 _Although, it looks like Windfall might be able to take that role should Ren be, for whatever reason, unavailable._

Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be nearly as strongly willed. It took little effort to notice his care for his partner, yet he remained willfully a friend.

That wasn't chasing his dreams, at least from her perspective.

While Ren was still near the edge of the clearing, she calls Ren over to her.

"We need to talk, specifically about the two of you," she began, looking at him expectantly.

"You want me to go out with her, yes?" he asks in an open display of his keen intuition.

Denada looks down at him, her eyes alight but also curious. After all, that question was basically an acknowledgement of his own lack of willingness to pursue his desires.

He gets the memo from her facial expression alone.

"I would," he starts, his own face tilting downward in thought. "But, I'm afraid I have far too much holding me back from her. She has escaped her dark past, but mine stays with me."

Denada smiles, causing Ren to turn up at her.

"Nonsense. The past is but a fragment of a by gone age. Your past is no more real than the fading Grimm before you," she states, gesturing towards the evaporating Ursa. "If you ever want to be free of darkness you claim to bear, simply pursue the light in your life."

Sagely, but that was technically her job description outside of being a hunter in training, so...

"I see," he says, turning towards Nora with a linger touch of sadness in his smile. "Thank you."

Denada was about to wave off the thanks, but a loud cry interrupts the both of them.

It was a combination of bird and girl, a huntress dressed in white falling from the sky while a massive Nevermore circles above.

"Bia, thank you for your blessing," Denada mumbles in prayer. "I finally get to show off."

She draws her weapon, the giant metal pole feeling heavy even in her rippling arms, but she acts regardless, splitting from Ren and running towards the group of hunters at the temple.

* * *

The collection of 11 huntsman gaze up at the sky, their weapons drawn.

"Who want's to end this quickly," Windfall asks while raising his hand.

Nadeshiko and Blake keep their hands down, but for significantly different reasons. The rest bring their hands up.

"And who wants to look completely awesome?"

His entire team raises their hands, but only Ruby and Nora keep theirs up outside of it.

"Awesome it is. Please, explain your powers."

 **I'm just going to skip explaining all of the Canon character's powers because you can just look that up if you don't already know.**

"I can control the malleability and shape of metal," Nadeshiko let's out readily, her eyes tracking the massive bird carefully.

Neo speaks next, but he seems a little defensive about it. "I can heal people with a touch, but I'm much better at beating things into the dirt with strength," he states with Pyrrha nodding in agreement beside him.

"I can make people forget me, sort of," Denada says, seemingly annoyed with her own answer. Truth is, her semblance was always counter to her ideals. Why would she want anyone to forget their lessons?

"And I can control air pressure," Windfall says while turning to face the bird in the sky. "I have a plan. Just do exactly as I say."

* * *

"Absolutely not. That's a waste of aura on top of being completely insane," Weiss, the residence Ice Princess, declares while gesturing to a variety of things, including the various people and weapons involved.

"Trust me, it'll be fine," Windfall counters without any real justification for his claim. Then again, it was basically impossible to provide evidence of success if an attempt had never been made.

Weiss sighs, glancing towards Neo to get his okay on this. After all, he was going to be the one in danger.

"I'm cool with it," he says, grinning from ear to ear.

Weiss sighs again, even going so far as pinch the bridge of her nose, but she begrudgingly hangs her head in defeat. "If he dies, I'm taking no blame for this."

They wave off her concerns, preparing to begin.

Denada throws her weapon into the air, the metal shaft aimed perfectly upwards.

Nora lunges beneath it, converting her forward momentum into extra striking power for when she slams her hammer directly into the base of the shaft.

The weapon is sent flying upwards, just like how Neo is from Weiss's glyphs.

They soar into the sky, actually accelerated by the air thanks to the near-complete removal of air in their path, even if it didn't counteract gravity entirely. The Nevermore turns it's head to face him, actually confused as Neo is now slightly above it's own mountainous altitude.

"Hello," Neo greets the Nevermore while spinning around mid-flight. His spin ends suddenly as his foot impacts directly with the pole, propelling it directly at the Grimm's white mask.

There was no dodging from that range when combined with the poles suddenly attained speed, and the Grimm starts to fall.

Neo skydives onto the beasts body, using it's feathered body as a kind of natural parachute to decrease his falling speed. Helping immensely was the increase of air resistance, an effect that decreased their terminal velocity.

Just prior to crashing into the ground, Neo steps up onto the pole, using the leverage he gained from that to throw himself upwards.

It wasn't much, but, when combined with everything else, it allowed him to safely roll to his feet without any real damage.

"WHOOO!" he cheers, giving a celebratory dance over the Grimm's already partially missing form.

* * *

Initiation was, either fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, uneventful from that point, the group easily making their way up to the launch pads again with a combination of rock climbing, glyph magic, and a partial path they found halfway up the cliff face.

"Well done, you guys," Ozpin congratulates them after taking a sip of his mug. "You have passed initiation with flying colors. Please return to the campus and await your team assignments in the morning."

They all turn to leave, but Ozpin taps the shoulders of team WNND, signalling them to stay.

"I have to say, I didn't expect to see someone go skydiving today. That was your plan, I presume," he states as fact, rather than question, towards Windfall.

Windfall simply nods in return.

"I realize you're all used to nearly complete freedom, but this school is not a place like that. Hurting yourself by accident is natural, but I don't want to see any of you pulling stunts like that again. If anyone gets injured for any illegitimate reason, I won't be able to let that slide. Your collective histories alone are already posing issues with the council."

The looks from the four of them show their understanding, even if they didn't agree with the sentiment of it.

"Alright. You may join your fellow classmates. Welcome to Beacon, Team Wind."

Ozpin turns back to Emerald Forest, his mug rising to his lips once more.

The four nod at each other, a silent agreement on where they were going.

Hint: it wasn't back to school. There was a few days before classes started, and they were going to enjoy them.


End file.
